Web ads are irritating & ineffective, says RoperASW

To be fair, clutter is considered a problem all over, with 75 percent of Americans saying that advertising is shown in “far too many places,” Roper found. TV commercials annoy 65 percent of Americans, and 56 percent object to the ads in print publications, Roper found.

But impatience with online ads is growing faster than with traditional media, according to Roper, posing a bigger problem for Web publishers who are still trying to prove the Internet’s marketing power.

While 38 percent of consumers found online ads to be “useful and informative,” an almost equal number, or 37 percent, found “almost none” of them to be useful and informative, the survey found. By comparison, 78 percent of Americans believe at least some TV commercials are “useful and informative.”

“This is a critical time for online advertising,” said Jon Berry, senior research director of Roper Reports. “In terms of usefulness, online ads have a long way to go to catch up to other media.”

Let’s face it, the advertising industry doesn’t care whether it’s irritating or intrusive, only whether it’s effective. I’m not sure anyone in the ad industry puts a lot of stock in whether consumers find their ads to be useful and informative, only in whether they take an action or change their attitudes.

Having said that, it’s pathetic that online advertising isn’t considered at least as useful and informative as (gasp) TV advertising. Utility and information are what the Net is about, yes? [Thanks, MarketingFix!]